James Thur stepped down recently as executive director of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, the largest local agency in Virginia providing mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse treatment.
How did you get your start
in mental health?
For me it began way back after I left active duty, and I wanted to do something more to serve the community, and initially I went to work for the Veteran Administration. And they’re the ones who gave me my start in the mental health field. I worked for them for a while before I shifted over, more focusing on local government and community mental health centers.
Are you looking with apprehension at the state and local budget shortfalls and what impact those could have on mental health?
Certainly with apprehension. Certainly for the current fiscal year, we were aware that things were going to get pretty challenging. I think we all began to tighten our belts a little early to look for savings … and tried to redouble our efforts to generate additional revenues to offset some of those reductions. And that will probably get us through most of the current fiscal year without dramatically lengthening waiting lists or waiting times.
Is there anything you regret not being able to accomplish with your time at the CSB?
Probably the one area which has gotten a lot of attention recently that I haven’t been able to make as much progress as possible, is reducing stigma … Recently the Department of Defense Mental Health task force indicated one of the major reasons why our troops are not properly accessing treatment services that are available is because of society’s stigma that is still out there … We’ve made some headway in that, but we have a long way to go.
What are your retirement plans?
My retirement plans actually relate to the topic we just spoke about, which is really serving veterans. And although I don’t have a specific plan right now, but because I am a veteran myself and worked for the Veterans Administration, served for a couple decades in the reserves, I am fully aware of the unique issues and problems that members of the [National] Guard and reserves experience, particularly as they return from deployment.
